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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Nexto Says Sayonara...For Now

After receiving word over the weekend that Nexto would close after dinner service Monday, the restaurant's closure has been confirmed by Caren West, who handles the restaurant's public relations.

West provided the following statement regarding Nexto's future:

"As the summer sun burns brighter, NEXTO, Concentrics Restaurants’ Japanese-centric eatery located in the Old Fourth Ward will be temporarily shifting to a private event space for groups of all sizes and stopping regular lunch and dinner service until this fall. Since opening, it has become a popular space for private functions and the summer is an ideal time to open its doors to that demand and expand to offer a variety of food, drink and service options inspired by favorite Concentrics’ concepts. Located in a funky and industrial corrugated metal shed, surrounded by a bamboo hedge, the space boasts modern minimalistic design and has received great praise since opening and is an ideal spot for special occasions, meetings, parties and more. To book a private event, please contact the events team at 678.904.2372. Stay tuned for many new exciting surprises when it reopens this fall. For more information visit, www.nextoatl.com. NEXTO is located at 828 Ralph McGill Blvd. NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30306."

Nexto, Mihoko Obunai's ramen restaurant, began as a pop-up, appearing in a variety of restaurants over the past couple of years. Last year however, Obunai partnered with Concentrics Restaurants and opened a full-service location on Ralph McGill Boulevard in the Old 4th Ward.

Nexto, which is next to popular Concentrics restaurant Two Urban Licks, opened this past October for dinner before adding lunch service this past January.

Nexto has received 60 reviews on Yelp.com with an overall rating of 3.5 stars.

Last night, on what was the restaurant's last day in business, Yelp user Beth T. visited the restaurant and had a less than memorable return visit, leaving the following comments with her one star review.

"Went back to Nexto for dinner tonight after having a really good lunch there recently. Not sure if we just picked a bad night, but I doubt I'll be back. The service was extremely slow. Seemed like one waiter was working the entire restaurant, which was pretty crowded. The music was too loud. They were out of one of the two frozen drinks on the menu, and the other one "wasn't frozen yet." They were also out of all of the bun dishes because they didn't have any buns. The brussel sprouts were very good. The soy bean hummus was pretty bland. Took forever to get drinks, and food, and the check."

Another one star review from earlier this month from user Joy M. started out well and cited "excellent service" but subsequently went on, and on, about the "very bland" food.

While it's unfair to judge a restaurant entirely by reviews left online, perhaps the restaurant's hiatus will be used to work on the menu and tweak other things. That said, it's also possible that Nexto never reopens and Concentrics, or another restaurateur, open a new concept in the space later this year.

What are your thoughts on Nexto's temporary closure? Do you think Nexto will reopen or will Concentrics flip the space into something new? Where is your favorite place for ramen in town?

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I was looking forward to this place opening, but one look at the menu had me walking away without even trying it. Nothing looked appealing, with a very limited selection. It's easy to get a feel for how a new restaurant will fare, and this place felt like a miss from the get go.

"While it's unfair to judge a restaurant entirely by reviews left online," allow me to do just that, because I also could have very easily excerpted positive reviews, but chose not too, weighting the negative ones much more heavily.

To anon 12:06 - you must be trolling and uninformed. I depend on Eli to tell us from his perspective and professional opinion and to sum it all up for us in a way that easy to consume and leverages him as a resource and his expertise - an avg of 3.5 stars over 60 reviews and the fact they could not make it through the summer tells us everything we need to know. what a horrible name for a restaurant and a horrible logo. The space looks decorated from the outside like a chipotle and from the inside like Tin drum Asian. If the infamous Daniel B. from yelp could not save this restaurant with his reviews and pictures nothing can!

Positive reviews are often bought. I love my Dentist but his office staff is always asking me to post my experience online knowing full well they have asked me numerous time before and I have done so, and received a discount on teeth whitening in exchange. Personally, I don't take stock in negative reviews because people troll the internet (paid and for free) and post negative reviews and opinions. Being in HR at one time the biggest false complaints come incompetent former employees, those are the ones who can hurt your business the most and the majority of their assessment are outright falsehoods (aka LIES).

I'm sure many of the reviews are not 100% real and truthful. But more of them must be accurate than not because I have generally found that good places get good reviews and lousy places get lousy reviews. I have posted both great and terrible reviews and all of them have been 100% genuine and accurate.

My dentist also asks patients to leave reviews (wonder if that is an industry thing or if I use the same dentist as Anon@8:37)? Their reviews are almost all positive but I have been going there for many, many years without any negative experiences and they have yet to give me any discounts!